FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT FORT HOOD - PAGE 5

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A new judge assigned to the court martial of Major Nidal Hasan, accused of a deadly 2009 shooting spree at a Texas military base, on Tuesday ordered preparations for a January trial start after months of delays over Hasan's insistence on wearing a beard in court. Hasan is charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 at Fort Hood in November, 2009, and faces the possibility of execution if convicted. His trial has been delayed for six months over Hasan's beard, which is a violation of Army grooming regulations.

By Karen Brooks FORT HOOD, Texas, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Prosecutors are expected to rest their case on Tuesday in the capital murder court-martial of a U.S. Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on fellow unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding more than 30 in 2009. Major Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim, has admitted in court to gunning down soldiers at a medical complex at the sprawling military base in central Texas, saying he switched sides in what he considered a U.S. war against Islam.

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The U.S. Army on Friday formally declined to award Purple Heart medals to the victims of Major Nidal Hasan's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, saying the move would damage his ability to receive a fair trial. The Army in a position paper said that awarding the medal to those wounded and posthumously to those killed in the November 2009 attack would 'set the stage for a formal declaration that Major Hasan is a terrorist' because the medal is presented to military members who are 'wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States.' Hasan, 42, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire on a group of soldiers who were preparing for deployment to Afghanistan, killing 13 and wounding 32 before he was shot and permanently paralyzed by two civilian Fort Hood police officers.

President Barack Obama stopped for a few hours in his hometown today, and what was supposed to be a quick visit for two Democratic fundraisers also included the president's first opportunity to express concern over the shootings at Fort Hood. “We're heartbroken that something like this might have happened again,” Obama told reporters at the site of his first fundraiser, Chicago Cut Steakhouse. While cautioning that the Texas shooting situation was “fluid right now,” the president said: “Obviously, this reopens the pain of what happened at Fort Hood five years ago.” At his second fundraiser, Obama also mentioned Fort Hood.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mental health experts raised concerns on Thursday that the deadly shootings at Fort Hood in Texas would unfairly label post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers as violent, saying there is no data to back up that link. The U.S. soldier suspected of killing three people before committing suicide at the military base on Wednesday was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and was being treated for depression and anxiety, the military said. As investigators tried to piece together a motive for the rampage, which left 16 others wounded, mental health experts and veterans groups dismissed PTSD as a possible trigger for the violent episode.

A police escort and members of the Patriot Guard Riders led the body of slain Army Pfc. Francheska Velez Monday past her alma mater on Chicago's Northwest Side. Velez, 21, known to friends in her West Humboldt Park neighborhood as "Cheka" was pregnant with her first child when she was killed in the Nov. 5 rampage at Fort Hood, Texas. Her body was brought back home Monday. Members of Kelvyn Park High School's ROTC program, to which Velez belonged during her freshman year, stood in formation outside the school at 4343 W. Wrightwood Ave. They saluted the hearse as it drove by. Nearby, friends wearing sweatshirts and T-shirts bearing Velez's picture hugged one another and cried.

By Jim Forsyth SAN ANTONIO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Survivors of the Fort Hood massacre say they are frustrated that the man accused of the shootings three years ago has yet to face a court martial. Major Nidal Hasan is accused of opening fire on a group of soldiers who were undergoing medical exams at the Army post in Texas on Nov. 5, 2009, in preparation for their deployment to Iraq. Thirteen people died and 32 others were wounded in the attack. Hasan was charged immediately with first-degree murder, which could result in a death sentence if he is convicted, but three separate trial dates have passed.

(Reuters) - When Ivan Lopez's mother died last year, the U.S. soldier suspected of killing three people at the Fort Hood base in Texas told friends the Army gave him just one day to attend her funeral in Puerto Rico. That brief allotted window appeared to compound his grief over a personal double-loss: The death in October of his mother, Carmen, a nurse, came soon after that of his grandfather, according to Edgardo Arlequin, the mayor of Lopez's hometown of Guayanilla. "That was one of the reasons why he was very upset," Arlequin said.

The suspected gunman at Fort Hood in Texas argued heatedly with fellow soldiers before going on a shooting spree that left three dead and 16 injured at the sprawling U.S. Army base, a military investigator said on Friday. Ivan Lopez, a 34-year-old soldier battling mental illness, is suspected of carrying out the rampage with a recently purchased pistol before turning the gun on himself at Fort Hood on Wednesday. "We do have credible information he was involved in a verbal altercation with soldiers from his unit just prior to him allegedly opening fire," Christopher Grey, of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, told a news conference, without offering further details.